Endorsements – New changes

Endorsements – New changes

So LinkedIn have changed how they display skills and endorsements, showing only the top 3 and apparently making endorsements better.

I have, after years of having my endorsements off, recently reset them to see if there are any significant changes.

Highly Skilled

The most significant change is to show that certain people, who are “highly skilled” in an area, have given endorsements. The thinking presumably, is that a highly skilled person would be reluctant to give an endorsement to someone who is not half way decent in an area, and further, that their skill level adds more weight to their endorsement.

Now, with respect to the kind people who have recently endorsed me for Professional Speaking, of the 6 who have, 1 is my husband and the others have never seen me speak. They have heard me say I am good, but self praise and promotion should not be the criteria, should it. And since I own Niche Training, we are going to have discount the endorsements from staff and interns. So still no value here.

And further! If I source a number of endorsements for my skill of Professional Speaking, that will make me appear on LinkedIn, to be skilled at Professional Speaking which will make my endorsement of another person with Professional Speaking look more impressive. With this kind of circular thinking, any bunch of people can get together and build an apparently impressive skill set of tags on LinkedIn that have absolutely no relation to real life at all.

Useless Skills

LinkedIn also tried to encourage me to add more skills, based on my profile settings. So they suggested things like “Newsletter” and “Emotional Intelligence”. While EQ is no doubt and incredibly valuable skill to have in the modern world of work, how exactly did LinkedIn determine that I have this skill from my own words about my work? Where have I demonstrated the ability to negotiate, respect, delay gratification and more? And just because a person can produce a newsletter or handle Microsoft, does not mean that this is a valid skill to be displaying.

One of the principles to consider when creating your LinkedIn profile, is that the more junior a staff member, the more necessary it is for them to list all the things they do in the office: balance petty cash, take messages, greet customers. The more senior you are, the less detail you include because someone who is “Regional Manager for Africa” does not need to tell you that he will be polite to customers when he encounters them.

Another issue is where there are real and relevant skills, like computer programming languages for example, LinkedIn does not have a complete set of skills for people to choose from, forcing them to search for approximations until LinkedIn catches up with what they are working on.

Impressions

But this is probably the most concerning. This post is by someone who so believes her own PR that she would brag about the number of e

ndorsements she has. These are vacuous ‘likes’ or tags on a profile that still reflect no real meaning in terms of people’s skill sets and abilities to deliver.
Still not impressed LinkedIn. Sorry.